Megadeth Will Take as Long as Necessary for ‘Dystopia’ Follow Up

Megadeth's 2016 album Dystopia was the band's most well-received album of the new millennium, and it even won the band their first Grammy Award. Two years later, they are working on the followup. In a recent interview with the podcast Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon, bassist David Ellefson spoke at length about whether or not something is on the way soon.

In the interview (transcribed by Blabbermouth), Ellefson discussed how different decades are more welcoming to thrash metal than others. "The '90s were not very nice to thrash metal. [Laughs] It started in the early '90s with, obviously, the Seattle movement and then this 'nu-metal' movement and radio rock and all these different things happened. And, fortunately, a few of us have survived it. The 2000s were kind of a recorrecting and rebuilding. I know when I came back in 2010 [he left the band in 2002] and we did the Rust In Peace 20th-anniversary [tour], it was very clear this is what the fans wanna hear. And it took us a couple of records and a couple of lineups to really get things dialed into the point where we could really get things recalibrated and really kind of set the baseline again of what Megadeth really is, and I think we accomplished that on Dystopia."

"Moving forward, it's nice to know that that was a record that really kind of re-set the benchmark for what Megadeth is. And I think one of the reasons that that record worked is we intentionally… We kind of rebuilt the lineup, management… we kind of rebuilt the whole structure of Megadeth to a large degree. But we didn't have any tour dates, [so] we took as much time as we needed. And now, of course, the train is in motion and the phone rings and they're, like, 'Hey, can you do the summer festivals?' 'Hey, can you come to Mexico and do this?' So now I don't think we quite have the… It's a luxury problem — the phone is ringing [and] people want us to come and play. So now I think the trick is making a great record, a follow-up to Dystopia, that we do make sure we take the time and make it right. I think gone are the days of, like, 'In order to get a tour, you've gotta go put out a new album.' I think those days are gone. Maybe for young, new bands, it's still like that. But for the most part, I think now people just enjoy live music, they love these festivals, and new album or not, they want to see you play — they wanna see you up on that stage playing their favorite songs for 'em. So I think that, by and large, that's kind of the calling of the music business right now."

This follows a lot of what Dave Mustaine has been saying in recent interviews, that the band has the capability to record a new album whenever they want to, but would rather take the time to fully flesh out ideas. Hear the full interview with Ellefson below.